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John and Lauren's Adventures

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Guest Blogs

This is where we’re going to put all of our guest blogs. We like writing guest blogs as it helps us reach more people with our message!

FixMyStreet: Helping blind people during lockdown

Cornwall Live: Becoming the first blind person to climb commando ridge

SayYesMore: 3 simple ways to make your digital content more accessible

GetOutside:AdventuresWithSightloss

SayYesMore: The time we almost regretted saying yes

Get Outside: Walking the Norfolk Coast Path in Winter

 

Recent Posts

  • Walking Snowdonia: Drum
  • Volunteering at The Big Sky Hideaway
  • How you can help blind people on your daily exercise.
  • A much needed Snow Day!
  • Commando Ridge

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adventure backpacking bear grylls bike blind camping canoe challenge climbing cornwall crabbing cycling daisy guidedog lake district lisbon lockdown london microadventure norfolk Paddle peak district planning poole review sailing santos sayyesmore snorkeling swimming tandem tips trad travel triathlon voyage wales walking waterfalls wild wildcamping winterton Yorkshire

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  • Another weekend with @gbrblindsailing . John and Kate both sailed together for the first time. The weekend was about match racing. In blind match racing there isn’t a sighted person on board to guide. It’s all done by sound bouys. Much of the weekend was spent on practicing following sounds, something that John finds quite difficult because of his hearing loss. Hearing aids are not much good in windy conditions and are not great for pinpointing sounds. For John, even more focus has to be put on feeling the breeze.
  • It’s probably not how most people recover from a triathlon, but we decided to make the most of the fine weather and longer days by heading up ingleborough. Our first time. A really nice walk… the steep section of weird steps wasn’t that fun but the views and the limestone pavement was really cool. On our way back we nipped over to ‘a big hole’ called great douk where there is a small cave and waterfall (tiny), but where the water goes after that only the cavers know. It seems to just disappear. #adventureswithsightloss #TMPtrail100 #TheMountainPeople @rab.equipment @lowe.alpine @trailmagazine
  • It’s not all outdoor adventures! Occasionally we treat ourselves to a game of 10 pin bowling, something John shouldn’t really be good at, but here he is smashing it! 🎳🎳❌ once he knows where the pins are he just goes for it. If most are the pins are down a good explaination on their location goes a long way. #adventureswithsightloss
  • Sometime last week we saw that the GoTri skipton was back and decided we’d do it. We did it once before (pre-Covid) so, apart from the fact neither of us have been running since Jan, we’ve barely been on the tandem for the last year, ‘why not!?’. We drove up last night, slept in our van (it was very frosty inside this morning) and got ourselves ready for a 7.20am start. Working out what clothes go where is a bit of an art but our piles of stuff made us look like we knew what we were doing 😂the swim was fine, quite warm actually, unlike the rest of it. With ice still around we hopped on the bike for a 9k cycle in soaking wet Lycra. It was cold! Half the route is super speedy (over taking cars) downhill and the rest is a painful uphill slog. Not easy on a tandem where flat is your true friend. After the run we were a bit uncoordinated, the cold was getting to us, and somehow John fell off the path in the exact same spot twice (bad guiding probably!) but we finished! It wasn’t super pretty but it was good. Not bad all before 8.30am on a Sunday! #triathlon #adventureswithsightloss @santosbikesnl @dryrobe @britblindsport @mntx_uk @craven_energy_triathlon_club @theyestribe
  • John is with @gbrblindsailing this weekend doing some keel boat stuff. Thanks to @roosterkit for the support! He looks toasty.. which is really saying something because he’s always cold…
  • Another good day on rock! It was a little misty so we thought the rock could feel greasy but it was all good! A couple of nice routes in the bag! #AdventuresWithSightloss
  • We’ve been at the @nationaloutdoorexpo today and signed up for some SUP with @redpaddleco . SUP hasn’t been all that successful for us in the past but today that changed thanks to the @redpaddleco team. When we signed up we put the blind thing down on the form. As a result they brought a tandem SUP to the show for us to try out. What superstars! We had such a nice time cruising around the lake and now we want a SUP! 🏄‍♂️🏄‍♂️
  • First outdoor climb of the year! The rock was slightly damp in the breaks but it was a fab day out . We were joined by Ash who hadn’t ever lead a route outside. We decided to give him the opportunity (and live streamed it on Facebook 😂). If we can help people progress and learn outside we’re always happy to share what we know #adventureswithsightloss
  • Great fun at a new wall today with our friend Ash! We did a bit of everything today, boulders, ropes, autobelays and a few lead climbs too. Lauren and Ash both tried a route blind. John definitely makes it look easy 🤣 Ash was a pretty good sight guide for a first timer! 👍👍👍 @bootbananas @talkingheadsetsltd @senabluetooth
  • We finally made it to Aviemore after our van issues - It completely died parked in Glencoe near a mountaineering hut and we had to get towed to inverness where we got a new one!

It was a bit of a nightmare but after all of that we were super keen to learn our winter skills. The only problem was that most of the snow had melted but there was no need to worry as Gemma, our course leader, knew where there would be some. We were going to learn how to use Ice axes and crampons properly and hopefully not stick them in each other, although there was a slight incident of john been blown into Lauren’s backpack and having an encounter with a shovel. After which it was decided that john would carry all sharp objects on his pack. We did ice axe arrest, dug snow holes, navigation and learnt a lot about avalanches and the risks.

Thanks for a great couple of days Gemma. 
https://www.able2adventure.co.uk/
@able2adventure_scotland 
@adaptivegrandslam 
@alpkit 
#adventureswithsightloss 

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